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Dear John,
When it comes to animal cruelty, Animal Wellness Action does not stand on the sidelines. We are on the playing field and in the thick of the action.
That’s especially true for our battle against the horrors of cockfighting and dogfighting.
Today, I am pleased to tell you that about 20 U.S. Representatives, evenly divided by political party and led by Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon. They have introduced national legislation to take an enormous bite out of the organized criminal networks of dogfighters and cockfighters.
This national legislative initiative comes right on the heels of our work to defeat two bills in Oklahoma that would have rolled back the state’s landmark anti-cockfighting law. And it comes even as law enforcement officers are arresting illegal animal fighters from Marlboro County in South Carolina to Kern County in California.
Our fight is multi-dimensional, but the goal is simple: end cockfighting and end dogfighting in every dark corner where it festers.
New Federal Legislation — the FIGHT Act — Introduced
We are working to investigate animal-fighting crimes and encourage law enforcement to arrest perpetrators or scare these organized criminals into shutting down their fighting arenas and their illegal breeding and training operations. And we are always striving to make state and federal anti-cruelty laws tougher and to bite with more force. That’s why I’m so excited to tell you about the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act just introduced in Congress.
I am glad that our existing federal law against animal fighting is strong and comprehensive. But it can be even stronger, and the FIGHT Act will make it so by enhancing the capacity of federal law enforcement personnel and even private citizens to take action against dogfighters and cockfighters.
Here’s what our new measure will do:
- Establish a national ban on gambling on animal fighting.
- Ban shipping adult fighting animals through the U.S. mail.
- Allow private citizens to initiate civil actions against animal fighters when law enforcement doesn’t act on reliable information.
Let’s face it. The cockfighters and dogfighters do their brutish work for the money. They risk their freedom to gamble on animal fights and to sell the animals into the trade.
Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte issued a ban on online betting on cockfights in that country months ago after dozens of people involved in cockfights were kidnapped and never heard from again! One woman, who had unpaid gambling debts, reportedly sold her child to pay off her bets! These betting sites are available to U.S. gamblers, and while it is impossible to track the scale, it’s clear such online gambling on cockfighting is surging in the United States. We don’t want any of this crime or cruelty in our nation.
Cockfighting and dogfighting are both barbaric in the extreme, but cockfighting has an additional feature that makes it even more virulent. Cockfighting and the trafficking of fighting animals threaten to spread avian influenza and other diseases.
The United States is already experiencing a dangerous and enormously costly outbreak of avian influenza. Cockfighting could extend the duration and geography of the outbreak, even making the virus more lethal and more transmissible to humans.
We’ll stop dogfighting and cockfighting only when we can nab the kingpins, shut down the pits, seize the live contraband, and penalize the whole cast of characters involved.
The introduction of the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking Act offers the prospect of doing just that.
I hope you’ll write to your federal lawmakers in support of the FIGHT Act.
And I hope you’ll donate to our “Animal Fighting Is the Pits” campaign today. It’s a fight we cannot afford to lose.
Thanks for being in this fight with us.
For the animals,
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Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
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